The first action of the month was disappointing.
After a day out, I looked at the Sun through my PST but saw no
features. The thin cloud didn't help but I think the Sun was quiet
anyway.
The evening wasn't much better. The next worst thing to a complete
white-out is moonlight being scattered by thin cloud, so no hope of
catching faint fuzzies. At leat the Moon itself looked half decent,
being a couple of days past full and Mare Crisium looking rather good.
Even at low magnification, I was not only able to see Jupiter's cloud
belts but some hint of jagged edges and shading between the belts. None
of this was cought on camera but at least I managed to capture the 3
moons on view.
Aug 8th
Bin scanned the Sun at 10:35
GMT in hazy conditions but didn't see any sunspots.
Aug 11th
I did a PST shoot at 18:00 GMT
but the Sun was rather quiet.
I watched for Perseid meteors from 21:00 to 21:20 GMT. Conditions
weren't great, with some twilight remaining and mixtures of thin and
thick cloud around. However, stars in Perseus were visible down to 3rd
magnitude, so it was worth a go. No meteors to report, though.
Aug 13th
As it was my wife's birthday, I
didn't do much, astronomy wise but did pop out for a while from 22:00.
Although the main shower from the night before was clouded out, I saw 3
meteors in 4 minutes, with complete blank the rest of the time, a bit
like buses. At 22:10 one fired off in the west-south-west direction but
only had a small trail, even though it was bout 2nd magnitude. At 22:13
I saw a similar meteor flash north from Cassiopeia, maybe a sporadic or
a Perseid whose path had been disturbed. A mere minute later a faint
Perseid went westwards. I probably missed a few faint ones, as there
was lots of thin cloud but by 22:30, it had clouded out totally.
Aug 16th
There was some respite from
the bad weather but fast moving and numerous clouds made the night
unsuitable for more than casual, recreational browsing. Jupiter was
quite well up by 00:30 GMT and showed 4 moons. I could see Albireo and
the Coathanger clearly and, at times, the Cygnus Milky Way looked
breathtaking. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) was at its autumn best and I
had a good look at the Pleaides (M45) and Melotte 20 before cloud moved
in. Before giving up due to tiredness and cloud, I saw a thin waning
crescent Moon, with libration moving Grimaldi further from the limb and
Earthhine, despite the cloud.
Aug 20th
I was working on a writing
project when I hit PC problems. I popped out at 22:25 GMT for a bin
scan and found the sky partly cloudy. Jupiter was due south and showed
3 moons, with 2 quite close to the west. I saw all five
binocular double stars but Melotte 20 was obscured by cloud. The
Andromeda Galaxy (M31) showed well and the only other deep sky objects
on display were the globular clusters M15 and M13, which were barely
visible.
Aug 23rd
I had been checking the Sun on
Big Bear and hadn't seen any white light activity for some time. I
checked the Sun myself at 15:30 GMT and could see limb darkening but no
sign of sunspots.
I should have tried to snap the Sun a bit earlier with the PST but I
snapped it through thin cloud at 17:00 GMT. Some surface details were
visible but no prominences. However, some prominences were visible in
the photograph.
Just afterwards, I bin scanned a small crescent Moon low in the west
but only the maria were visible and no craters.
Aug 28th
It was a sky of two
halves. Near the horizon there was a mixture of thin and thick cloud as
I bin scanned the sky at 20:45 GMT. The Moon was very low down and
surrounded by haze and I felt too lazy to try a photo. Tycho had just
emerged into daylight. Lots of other craters were visible. Jupiter
showed 2 moons (probably Ganymede and Callisto) to the west. The
Andromeda Galaxy (M31) was more clear of the murk and could I make out
a dust lane or was it wishful thinking? I could just make out the Ring
(M57) and M15. M13 and M92 were clear and the Usual Suspect double
stars all split clearly. The Milky Way around Cygnus was very clear and
even visible without the binoculars. With them, it looked spectacular.
I would have liked to try easterm Sagittarius and Capricorn but the
region was clouded out.
